Oxford schoolgirl creates art for her local bus

Bella Kavanagh (7) from Marcham Primary School is beaming with pride as her very own piece of art will take centre stage on her local Stagecoach bus service, after she won a competition.

Schoolchildren in three primary schools in Oxfordshire took part in the Stagecoach ‘My Oxford’ competition, which invited key stage one children to draw a picture that illustrated something they associated with their beautiful city, Oxford.

Wootton-by-Woodstock, Grove Primary and Marcham Primary all submitted entries, which were uploaded to the bus operator’s Facebook page.

One picture from each school, with the most likes, was voted as the runner up, while Hayley Beer-Gamage, CEO at Experience Oxfordshire, voted for the overall winner.

Bella’s colourful picture illustrated her favourite day trip in Oxford – a journey to Woodstock on the bus, visiting Blenheim Palace’s butterfly house with her family.

Bella took inspiration from her trip and created a colourful drawing of the palace and the house which included glittery butterflies. The picture also captured the bus stop they used, the bus they travelled on and a conversation between her and her mum.

The picture will be displayed on the Gold S8 bus, local to Marcham. Bella’s family also won a 4-week's free bus travel.
Holly Bryant (5) from Wootton-by-Woodstock Primary, Matthew Ellery (6) from Marcham Primary and Riley Probert (6) from Grove Primary were all runners up taking home a 12-trip ticket to use on Stagecoach services in Oxfordshire.
Katie Kavanagh, Bella’s mum said: “Bella screamed with excitement when she found out she had won, we then jumped around for about an hour and started telling everyone!

“We are so proud of her and can’t wait to see the picture on our local bus!”

Karen Coventry, Stagecoach in Oxfordshire Business Development Manager, said: “We’re delighted for Bella and our three runners up. We received 35 entries in total, all of which were fantastic.

“The winning pictures were colourful, imaginative and showcased the great variety of things to do that we have here on our doorstep in Oxfordshire”

The gallery of images can still be found on the Stagecoach in Oxfordshire Facebook page.